Lecture - Thoracic Spine Flashcards
How many
12
Key features
Medium sized, heart shaped vertebral body
Small circular vertebral foramen
Prominent transverse processes with costal facets - articulate with ribs
Long spinous process angled inferiorly
Articular facets 20 degree to the coronal plane 60 degrees at axial plane
Demi facets
T2 - T8
Whole facets
T9-T10
Articular processes
Permits rotation
Limits flexion - rib cage connected to each segment of the thoracic spine
Ribs 1-7 attachment
Sternum
Ribs 8-10
Costal cartilage
Ribs 11 and 12 attachment
No attachment
Terminate in abdominal musculature
Provide protection to the kidneys in the retroperitoneum
Costal facets
Cartilage lines depressions
Articulate with head of the ribs
Superior - head of adjacent rib
Inferior - head of the rib below
Atypical facets
T1 - not Demi facet
T9 -12- single pair of whole facets located across the vertebral body on their pedicles
Spinous process shorter and less oblique as thoracic spine descends
Where does the tubercle of the rib articulate
Costal facet on the respective transverse process
What happens to the lumbar primary kyphosis during development?
Lumbar primary kyphosis lost when crawling
Becomes secondary lordosis when standing and walking
Senile kyphosis
Nucleus pulposus dehydrates with age and osteoporotic fractures can occur with vertebral compression.
Secondary lordosis disappears` and primary kyphosis reappears
Centre of gravity passes through which vertebrae
C1/C2
C7/T1
T12/L1
L5/S1
Weak points
